Beardsley

The 1966 retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the similar one held at the Gallery of Modern Art, New York Proved how great is the interest of art lovers and the General public in the artistry and craftsmanship of Aubrey Beardsley. It also revealed the need for an entirely new collection in a single volume of all his better-known works and of less familiar ones that have now risen in esteem.
This volume aims at providing such a collection. . ,
Brian Reade, who is today recognized as a leading authority on the subject, has chosen about 500 examples of Beardsley’s art, a large proportion of which have been reproduced in this volume in line or in half-tone from original drawings in public and private collections all over the world. Some of these drawings have never previously been published.
In cases where the originals have been lost or are no longer traceable, the reproductions have been made from early line-blocks or half-tone plates. Eight plates are in colour.
The range of the selection includes a number of designs in Le Morte Darthur and of grotesques in the Bon-Mots series—never to be seen except in the books themselves, now rare. These earlier drawings have been unjustly neglected in all former Beardsley anthologies. The better-known drawings illustrating Wilde’s Salome, The Yellow Book and The Savoy (and some lesser known ones) are included as well as illustrations for The Lysistrata of Aristophanes.